Digital Signatures (submitting and receiving tenant verification)

[Dustin Beam]

Hello Beautiful People of BP,

So I receive applications online and I have a lengthy disclaimer at the end where the applicant types their name as a digital signature to accept that I have the right to verify any info provided, contact landlords, etc. So far, there hasn't been any push back from past landlords when I provide this.

Today, I received a request for tenant verification that really didn't show much and I was only told they submitted the application online. Now, I want to help others within our LL community, but we also know how litigious our society is so I do have some reservations to just give out that info to someone I don't actually know. 

So while I do a digital application/signature, it is hard to know whether any form I received was legitimate. And for the record, so would a form that contained a manual signature...anything can be easily faked/forged. 

So I ask you, how tight are you in accepting digital signatures? And what should we require of each other in these situations? Should we all require something like DocuSign? That seems a little extreme to me, but I'd love your opinion.

Thanks in advance

Dustin